


Speak Now

by lynnthinksurcool13



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-09
Updated: 2012-03-09
Packaged: 2017-11-01 16:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynnthinksurcool13/pseuds/lynnthinksurcool13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gilbert and Madelin had promised to be best friends forever, but things started to change when Gil started going out with Elizabeta. Suddenly Maddie needs to fight to get Gilbert back, before it's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speak Now

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Taylor Swift's song "Speak Now." Maybe someday I'll go through it and polish it a bit more, but for now, HAI INTERNETZ HOW R U.

Maddie and Gilbert had been best friends for as long as she could remember. They'd been neighbors, classmates, even roommates for a while, having made sure they attended the same college. And somewhere along the line, Maddie had fallen in love.

But things had started changing when Gilbert began going out with a girl in his Philosophy class. He would bring her to their apartment sometimes, for dinner or a movie, and her disdain for Madelin was transparently clear. It wasn't long before Gilbert began to take her out more often than in, before he started canceling his Faux-Chef Friday Night Cooking sessions with her in favor of staying at Elizabeta's, before he became increasingly distant. The school year ended, and Madelin was offered a position as an intern and research assistant at a psychological research facility in Vancouver, an opportunity she didn't want to lose. She'd spent all of the summer and the next school year studying aggression and testosterone levels in Canadian hockey players.

But then she came back.

Gilbert's letters had come slower and slower until they had finally ceased altogether. She could only find out how he was doing from bits of gossip filtering through the grapevine. That's how she'd found out that he was engaged.

Everyone she heard from agreed that their marriage was very sudden, as they'd dated for little over a year and their engagement had so far lasted a mere six weeks. But Madelin had no idea how sudden it really was until her morning newspaper happened to flop open to the page with their wedding announcement.

The ceremony was in two hours.

Maddie didn't even pause to check her hair before she was in her car, speeding off to their church. She noted with chagrin that it was _her_ church, the one she'd dragged Gilbert to a few times before he began to foster a faith of his own.

Madelin knew they wouldn't let her in at the front door; Elizabeta hadn't invited her. She snuck in through a side emergency exit door which she knew was always left unlocked for parishioners to come at night if they felt a need for God's presence. She stood at the back corner of the church, half hidden by the curtains adorning the wall, and took stock.

Gilbert's friends were loitering at the front of the church, and by the looks of it were getting along just fine with Elizabeta's brothers. The rest of her family was already seated, every single one of them dressed in outfits of a tasteless pastel. Some peered over their reading glasses at her jeans-and-tee ensemble, their derisive examinations as evident as the sun on a clear blue day. But she wasn't here for them. She was here to stop Gilbert from marrying the wrong girl -- a girl she could hear yelling at one of her bridesmaids from all the way in her dressing room.

Guests eventually began filing in, and then she saw him, standing in a corner behind the altar, looking the nicest she'd ever seen him. Numbly, she followed the flow of traffic, taking a seat midway back, just a few short feet from the aisle. A perfect vantage point.

She watched the standard wedding gestures play out in front of her as if on a stage. Impatient, she distracted herself by imagining what would happen when Gilbert woke up and realized how crazy he was being. He was probably only marrying Elizabeta out of obligation to her or her family. When the ceremony was called off, they would probably meet at their special place behind the church, in that meadow where they could see the stars, and exchange the proper reintroductions. Things wouldn't be the _same_ as they were before, but they would certainly be close.

Then the music started. It was a strange rearrangement of the traditional wedding march, one that sounded more like it belonged at a funeral. Then Elizabeta floated down the aisle, somehow carrying herself as if she'd just been crowned beauty pageant queen despite wearing a dress that looked to Madelin's completely unbiased eyes like some sort of lace-covered pastry. Maddie let herself pretend that at that moment Gilbert would've preferred to see _her_ walking towards him.

Her time was running out. Madelin closed her eyes and mentally rehearsed her plan one final time.

The preacher's voice rang out -- "...speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Slowly, Madelin stood up. She said not a word, ignoring the horrified stares of everyone present and the fire that was shooting from the eyes of the bride, keeping her gaze trained on Gilbert.

For a long moment, there was complete silence. Then Gilbert opened his mouth to say...

"I do."

Madelin's eyes snapped open.

"I now pronounce you Man and Wife."

Maddie jumped to her feet, but her shock was lost in the mass of guests who rose to their feet in applause as Maddie watched Gilbert kiss his lovely new bride, the first time he'd ever done so in her presence. She followed the mob dumbly as they pushed the newlyweds to a white limousine parked in front of the church. A bouquet was thrown; Maddie supposed that someone in the crowd must have caught it, though she never got to see who. Gilbert opened the door for his wife, and turned around to give one last goodbye.

Their eyes locked, and she saw his lipstick-stained lips gape in surprise. Neither could move for an eternal few seconds, until a white-gloved hand emerged from the darkness of the limo and pulled him inside, assisted by another guest who shut the door behind him. Then the limousine pulled away and was gone, taking with it everything Maddie had ever wanted and everything she had wished did not exist, and all she could do was cry.

Speeding down the freeway was a man in a stiff tuxedo with one thought on his mind: his wedding was not as awesome as he'd thought it would be.  



End file.
